Google Celebrates Thor Heyerdahl’s 100th Birthday

Google has posted an illustration of the Kon-Tiki balsa raft and one of the iconic Easter Island statues at their start page on the occasion of Thor Heyerdal’s 100th birthday. (Illustration by: Google)

Today, October 6, Google honors the Norwegian adventurer, philanthropist, ethnographer and author Thor Heyerdahl who would have become 100 years old. Heyerdahl became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built balsa raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands.

“Kon-Tiki” is also the title of the Norwegian documentary from 1950 about the expedition led by Heyerdahl. The movie received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1951.

Heyerdahl also conducted an expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), built and sailed the boats Ra, Ra II and the Tigris – as well as “searched for Odin” in Azerbaijan and Russia. In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO’s “Memory of the World”. The explorer died on 18 April 2002, aged 87.